Marketing with Google Street View

If you have a business with a physical presence, here are some good reasons for marketing with Google Street View.

First, what is Google Street View? This is a program offered by Google through independently certified photographers who sign up for the program. A photographer will shoot 360-degree panoramic photos of your business and put them through Google’s software. The software stitches it into a 360-degree virtual walking tour and puts it on the business Google pages, including Google search, maps and places. This services uses the same technology as the current outdoor Google Street View, which you will find on most business Google pages today. This is a 360-degree view outside the business. Switching from a “see outside” to a “see inside” seems to me to be a no brainer.

Google is typically the first place people go when they are searching for something. Don’t you think that if they are looking for a business, they will look first at the one with the virtual tour posted online?

The outdoor Street View photography is taken by Google and is not charged to businesses, while the inside is done by certified independent photographers. That’s why there is a charge for this indoor service. It’s the way these photographers make their living. Prices vary depending on a number of factors — mostly due to size of the business.

Marketing with Google Street View puts these tours on Google search and maps will increase the click through rate to websites. It can even have benefits for search engine optimization of a website.

So why get a tour? People are always interested in knowing what a business looks like before they get there. Think of yourself. Do you pass by businesses and wonder what the place looks like before you go inside? Are you curious about new restaurants and what they look like before they get there. Having an appealing virtual tour online will let potential customers see exactly what the place looks like and could have a major influence on whether they visit that business.

Real estate agents often use virtual tours of the properties they list to get them noticed and find potential buyers. Businesses around the world are quickly learning that virtual tours of their businesses will get them noticed more and be a major draw for customers.

With the cost of these virtual tours being very low in relation to other types of marketing, the question remains: why would a business not want a virtual tour? Unless they want to hide their business from the world. Marketing with Google Street View makes tremendous sense and, as I said earlier, is really a no brainer. Businesses should realize that they can’t afford not to do marketing with Google Street View.